t was credited with Lesbian tendencies.
"Soon the rumor, true or false, of this singularity spread through the
court. They were gross enough there never to have heard of that refinement
of ancient Greece in the tastes of tenderness, and the idea came into
their heads that the illustrious Hobart, who seemed so affectionate to
pretty women, must be different from what she appeared." This passage is
interesting because it shows us how rare was the exception. A century
later, however, homosexuality among English women seems to have been
regarded by the French as common, and Bacchaumont, on January 1, 1773,
when recording that Mlle. Heinel of the Opera was settling in England,
added: "Her taste for women will there find attractive satisfaction, for
though Paris furnishes many tribades it is said that London is herein
superior."

[181] "I believe," writes a well-informed American correspondent, "that
sexual inversion is increasing among Americans--both men and women--and
the obvious reasons are: first, the growing independence of the women,
their lessening need for marriage; secondly, the nervous strain that
business competition has brought upon the whole nation. In a word, the
rapidly increasing masculinity in women and the unhealthy nervous systems
of the men offer the ideal factors for the production of sexual inversion
in their children."

[182] Homosexual women, like homosexual men, now insert advertisements in
the newspapers, seeking a "friend." Naecke ("Zeitungsannoncen von
weiblichen Homosexuellen," _Archiv fuer Kriminal-Anthropologie_, 1902, p.
225) brought together from Munich newspapers a collection of such
advertisements, most of which were fairly unambiguous: "Actress with
modern ideas desires to know rich lady with similar views, for the sake of
friendly relations, etc.;" "Young lady of 19, a pretty blonde, seeks
another like herself for walks, theatre, etc.," and so on.

CHAPTER V.

THE NATURE OF SEXUAL INVERSION.

Analysis of Histories--Race--Heredity--General Health--First Appearance of
Homosexual Impulse--Sexual Precocity and Hyperesthesia--Suggestion and
Other Exciting Causes of Inversion--Masturbation--Attitude Toward
Women--Erotic Dreams--Methods of Sexual Relationship--Pseudo-sexual
Attraction--Physical Sexual Abnormalities--Artistic and Other
Aptitudes--Moral Attitude of the Invert.

Before stating briefly my own conclusions as to the nature of sexual
inversion, I propose to analyze the f